City Streets (1931): Gangster Cowboy Noir
Although charming and surprisingly modern, City Streets is best consumed as an artifact of movie making.
Although charming and surprisingly modern, Rouben Mamoulian’s City Streets is best consumed as an artifact of movie making.
As a pre-code film, we get a glimpse of where cinema was going prior to succumbing to censorious government overreach in 1934. The way it blends together different genres without losing its Gangster Movie aesthetic tells us artistic expression was thriving during this brief but exciting era.
At the same time, one can argue City Streets also qualifies as an Early Noir or Pre-Noir film. The fact that Dashiell Hammett came up with the story is really all you need to know.
